1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to environmental protective devices and specifically to covers for computer keyboards, keypads and the like.
In recent years the use of keyboards has increased dramatically for industrial, business and personal use. Keyboards are an integral part of many machines such as word processing devices, personal computers (PC), typewriters, calculators, touch tone telephone devices and the like.
Although the display of such keyboards vary from device-to-device, each represents a series or array of keys which are movable through a deck portion of the keyboard in order to generate an electrical or mechanical signal by movement of one or more keys. However the presence of passages in the deck portion in the vicinity of the movable keys permits access of various contaminants such as water, dust and the like to the interior of the keyboard. The entry of such contaminants affects the internal operation resulting in malfunction of the keyboard. It is therefore one of the objects of the present invention to provide a keyboard that prevents the entry of contaminants into the interior of the keyboard, especially in those passages between the keys and the deck of the keyboard.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art has attempted to restrict entry of contaminants into the interior of a keyboard by the use of an elastomeric boot or cover such as is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,372,246, 4,039,068, 4,436,965, 4,438,300 and 4,501,936.
Although each of these prior art attempts provides a cover or boot which aids in eliminating the entry of contaminants, the prior art attempts do not successfully solve the problem. One failure of the prior art is that the "touch" or "feel" of the keyboard, as is normally associated by the operator of the keyboard with each individual key, is lost due to the cover material of the prior art. Thus, deprivation of the keyboard operator's sense of touch or feel of the individual keys was a significant drawback associated with the keyboard covers of the prior art. Further, although these prior art covers were an aid in reducing entry of contaminants, none eliminated contamination of keyboard assemblies.
Other prior art attempts at providing keyboard covers were concerned with providing overlays or "masks" on the keyboard such that new indicia were provided on the cover which differed from the indicia found on the original keyboard. Such prior art attempts can be found in Great Britain published application Ser. No. 2,152,437A and the IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletins, Vol. 4, No. 12, May, 1962 entitled "Plastic Keyboard Translator" by C. C. Kling, Vol. 7, No. 12, May 1965 entitled "Keyboard Transducer" by H. C. Kuntzleman. Although these keyboard covers, or masks, cover the keys it was the aim of such devices to provide a translation device for the keyboard and they are not very effective in preventing contaminants from entering the interior of the keyboard.
Additional prior art attempts to provide means to prevent contamination of keyboards can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,657,492, 4,352,968 and 4,396,830. However, none of these attempts provides a satisfactory cover for completely preventing contamination of the interior of the keyboard while preserving the "touch" or "feel" of the individual keys of the keyboard.